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NaNoWriMo is officially coming to a close, for all you last minuters there is only one short day left to get those 50,000 words. Sadly, I will not being joining many of you in the winner’s circle. But, I’m not too upset and have learned a few lessons for next year! This was my first year trying out for NaNoWriMo and I think I made one of the biggest rookie mistakes... Curious you wonder, what could that possibly be?

I didn’t outline enough, or rather should I say, I didn’t outline, like at all. Not a lick. I wrote down a five sentence “blurb” and called ‘er good. Well, that’s where I went wrong. For one who doesn’t normally outline, I figured I was safe, but when you are trying to 50K in a month, well you’d better be prepared. When I got stuck, my novel ran off the tracks I just couldn’t seem to get it back and chugging down the line. Had I had a more detailed outline I’m sure I could have pushed through, or jumped a few scenes and started, maybe added a new character, really follow any of my tips for getting stuck, but for some reason I just could not prevail. It’s a bit of a hit, but as I said, I’ve learned lessons and I will come back next year guns a’blazin.

Now, in other news, we have to announce a WINNER! Over the weekend together with the wonderfully talented Chelsea Fine I ran a contest. One in which, the winner would receive a paperback copy of Sophie & Carter. I want to thank each and every one of you from the bottom of my heart! It means so much to me that you are all willing to take a few minutes, come to my blog and enter the contest—and hopefully read a few posts while you’re here—without you, writing this blog and giving books away wouldn’t be near as much fun. So thank you!

I’m a little late on this but....

The winner is...

Shell Flower

I want to give a big thank's to Mr. Rafflecopter for helping make this contest cool, and for randomly selected todays winner.

I have to say December is going to be a little slow, I don’t really have much planned *snickers* Okay, I can’t lie to you guys, I have BIG, HUGE things planned! I’m going to be running another contest, one that will literally blow your minds! But, you’ll just have to hang around, and wait until the big reveal. All I can say now is, there are going to be lots, and lots of great books up for grabs, and a chance to meet some super-duper awesome Authors and Book Reviewers!

Grats to Shell Flower on the win. Thanks for running the contest, Avery, I look forward to the next one.

I think the important thing with NaNo is really what you learned. It's interesting that lack of an outline hurt you considering you are not normally an outliner. I'm not much of an outliner, either, but I tried it this year, and it didn't help me much (though my excuses are a bit different). Learn from it, and move on, there you go.

Thanks so much! And don't worry too much about Nanowrimo. Last year I ended up cutting about half of the words I wrote during November when I later edited my novel. Sometimes it's not a good thing to be rushed. Even if you can salvage some of it, it will be worth it just for that one sparkling idea. Look at The Night Circus. A crazy Nanotangent turned into a bestseller.

I think part of it was the crunch to get to the 50K words. Normally when I get stuck I can just take what ever time I need to get, well, unstuck, but when your on a deadline you just don't have all the time in the world.

@ShellFlower

Thanks for the kind words, and yes I will keep working on my NaNo, the idea is there I just need to work more at it. And congrats on your win! I'm off to the post office now to drop it in the mail!!!